by Elizabeth Farrell
We make a list of things to pack: toothpaste,
shampoo, aloe vera in case of sunburn.
How simple to take our carry on bags,
avoid long lines at the airport.
The news intrudes on our vacation. Returning home
will not be so easy; security rules are in effect.
Gathering the lipstick, shaving cream and gels
a terrorist might use to disguise explosives on the plane,
we send them in a box to our home address instead
of discarding them at the departure gate.
Our teeth brushed with water, there is no escaping
what could be delivered to our doorstep.
Elizabeth Farrell wrote advertising copy in her early years in Chicago. She settled in southeastern Massachusetts where she raised two sons with her husband. Her poems have appeared in Animus, Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge, New Bedford Magazine, The Onset Review, and many others. She has been writer-in-residence in several schools. She has a new poem in the forthcoming anthology, The Chaos of Angels.
